This Day in Baseball History: July 28th, 1971

When I was younger, I used to think he was Frank Robinson, and it took me a while to distinguish the two.

On July 28, 1971:

Brooks Robinson does the unthinkable.

In 1983, Brooks Robinson was elected to the Hall of Fame. During his career, he was a decent hitter. Over 23 seasons, Robinson hit .267/.322/.401 with a decidedly average 104 OPS+. In fact, one of the few offensive records he set was hitting into 4 triple plays during his career. However, he didn’t win a plaque at Cooperstown for his stick. Instead, he won it with his glove.

Known as the “Human Vacuum Cleaner” (someone really needs to come up with a better nickname for a defensive whiz), Robinson nabbed an incredible 16 consecutive Gold Glove awards from 1960-1975, and he is considered to be the best defensive third baseman of all-time. His career fielding percentage was .971 with 263 errors (about 11 a season). In every way, he was an awesome third baseman.

But every dog has his day, I guess. On July 28, 1971, Brooks Robinson committed 3 errors in the same game. The fifth inning was the culprit as it appears that he made all three in that inning on two consecutive plays. Adding to his misery, he went 0-for-3 on the day. The Orioles, however, went on to win the game in an exciting fashion as the other member of the Robinson family, Frank (okay, they aren’t really related), bashed a walk-off home run to win the game, 3-2. The only 3 Oriole runs came on that one hit. Interestingly enough, the Orioles and the Oakland Athletics both had a 63-38 record at the end of the game.

Trivia TimeRobinson forgot this game and helped the Orioles win 101 games and make it to the World Series. Who did they play and who won the 1971 World Series?

Yesterday’s Answer –> Willy Taveras’ best streak was 171 games and 666 at-bats. 70 and 285 would be the best after that. Womack’s second best was 62 and 265, but he had several double-digit streaks as well.